Book News, In Brief

Parents' groups always seem to hand awards to the crappiest books. Oh, look. Here's another. Via Marketwire: iParenting Media Awards announced My Bag and Me as a winner in the book category. My Bag and Me is a thoughtful book educating children on the topic of going green and ways to reduce waste on the earth. Grocery shopping bags are not only wasteful but unnecessary, especially when a special reusable bag is available. My Bag and Me comes with its very own reusable shopping bag for children to use when shopping with mom and dad.
Seriously, if any of my abusive foster parents had ever handed me a book called My Bag And Me, I would've called Social Services on them.

At long last, a real crackhead's memoir. From The Huffington Post: We just got our hands on an early, early copy of New York Times columnist David Carr's memoir, The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own. It documents Carr's adult life of addiction and recovery as well as his career and family trajectory. Because of the recent strain on the genre by hoaxers like JT LeRoy, Margaret Seltzer, and James Frey, Carr actually went to the trouble of video-interviewing other participants in the events that he remembered, just to be as accurate as possible.

Nerds: Looking for a great way to stir up stagnant pheromones? Try Campus Quidditch! Via Ashland Daily Tidings: "Run, snitch, run!" With a shout, Jessica Snee sets an afternoon game of "quidditch" into motion. The once-fictional sport, featured in author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, made its debut on the Southern Oregon University campus Sunday. In the Harry Potter universe, the "snitch" is a winged golden ball, the capture of which ends the quidditch match. Here on SOU's Cox Lawn, the snitch is freshman William Barondeau. The "seekers" on both teams aim to snatch a tennis ball in a sock from the back of Barondeau's cargo pants. "It's weird being a ball," Barondeau said after the game.
(Question: How long do you think it will take before Rowling's lawyers come sniffing around?)